Possível tensão social em Moçambique

The IMF last week highlighted Mozambique as a country where the poor benefit less from growth, and warned of possible social tension. It added that the government is "particularly concerned". Speaking at a meeting in London, Roger Nord, IMF Deputy Director for Africa, said that in Mozambique the poor "have benefitted less" than average from the rapid growth of the past decades. "It is an issue because it raises social tension. And it is an issue because if the poor don't benefit enough it is going to be very difficult for growth to be sustained. And it is certainly a topic we [IMF] are discussing in depth, for example in Mozambique, where the authorities are particularly concerned to make sure that the poor benefit as much as the rest of the country." Nord was speaking at an ODI (Overseas Development Institute) meeting on 31 May to launch the IMF's 2012 Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa. The report has a a large section on current and future natural resource exporters, including Mozambique. And he says a key question is "what are countries going to do to avoid being the Nigerias and Angolas of the next generation?" He argues that the biggest difference is that countries including "Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique over the last 10 to 20 years have built more robust democratic institutions [which are] more robust institutions than the early oil producers had." The report warns that the capital intensive nature of the industry means that "much of the income generated by resource extraction accrues to foreigners" and that "the design of an appropriate licensing and taxation framework is of central importance if countries are to maximize the benefits they receive from their endowment of natural resources". The report also suggests that some resources be left in the ground to be "transferred to future generations". Finally the IMF report warns that natural resource income often does not improve social indicators and that often "low productivity sectors (such as agriculture and many services) remain largely untransformed." Indeed, it notes that it is "striking" that several African natural resource exporters have not used the money to raise the "very low productivity" of agriculture. IMF report: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/reo/2012/afr/eng/sreo0412.htm JOSEPH HANLON